if I were a German taxpayer, I would not care to swallow these losses either

Hmmmm - Europe went through two disastrous, world changing wars that killed nearly 75 million people in 25 years, allowed Communism to take over Russia and nearly the world, destroyed the British empire and untold billions of dollars of wealth, (or whatever currency you wish to denote it in), ruined countless lives, nearly resulted in a world wide race based dictatorship, yada, yada, yada.

And they really want to poke the Germans through the bars one more time? Really?